The South Dakota State Jackrabbits will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska tomorrow to take on the No. 8 Miami Hurricanes.
Even though the Jacks are coming off a heartbreaking five-set loss against South Dakota in the Summit League Championship game, they were still selected to be in the NCAA tournament.
“It was crazy we were definitely nervous going into it,” said Sylvie Zgonc. “The nerves building up and waiting until our name was called was so nerve-racking. But once it was finally called, it felt like all our hard work this season just finally paid off and it was such a huge relief.”
The Jacks will go into the match against the Hurricanes with a 27-2 record, with one of those losses being in the Summit League Championship.
“You could talk about where we are in the seeding; it doesn’t matter,” head coach Dan Georgalas on making the NCAA tournament. “Our group earned this opportunity.”
The Jackrabbits are led by 2024 Summit League Coach of the Year, Dan Georgalas and Sylvie Zgonc, the 2024 Summit League Player of the Year.
The sophomore Zgonc leads the team in points with 540.5 and leads the Summit League in kills with 485 in total and 4.41 kills per set. Zgonc also added 295 digs on the year.
Another leader for this team is redshirt junior Sydni Schetnan, who leads the Summit League in hitting percentage, hitting at a 34.5% clip. Schetnan tallied up 275 kills and 141 blocks on the year.
A couple of other notable Jackrabbits are setter Rylee Martin, with 712 assists and freshman middle blocker Madison Burr who has 130 total blocks.
Miami
Miami finished the year with a record of 21-10 and a conference record of 12-8. They will have to travel over 1,500 miles to play the Jackrabbits but will come into the match as heavy favorites on Friday.
Miami is coming off a 3-0 victory against the Duke Blue Devils last Friday in Miami.
Miami holds the eighth-best record in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference). A standout for the Hurricanes is Flormarie Heredia Colon, a junior outside hitter from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Heredia Colon has tallied up 490 kills on the year, which is good enough for first place in the ACC. The junior is also second in the ACC with 562.5 points.
Sophomore outside hitter Grace Lopez is also a key hitter for the Hurricanes. She tallied 400 kills, 261 digs and 470 total points on the season.
Some more contributors for Miami are 6’4 middle blocker Dalia Wilson, who has amounted to 98 blocks on the year to go along with 155 kills.
Finally, Paula Guersching, the third leading scorer for the Hurricanes, is one of the other key pieces to this team, recording 163.5 points with 128 kills, 87 digs and 28 blocks.
Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. tomorrow and will be streamed on ESPN+. The winner of this match will go on to play the winner of the Nebraska/Florida A&M match on Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
